1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital image processing technique, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for detecting eyeglasses in a digital image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Face recognition plays an important role in digital image processing techniques concerned with the study and processing of human faces images. An important requirement for a successful face recognition system is its robustness against occlusions appearing in face images. Eyeglasses are some of the most common objects that occlude faces. Presence of eyeglasses in images can significantly affect the performance of a face recognition system. Variability in lighting conditions in face images poses an additional challenge in eyeglasses and face detection.
A few publications have studied the impact of occluded face regions on face recognition. One such technique is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2005/0190963 A1 entitled “Target Object Detecting Method, Apparatus, and Program”. The method described in this work detects faces which pose detection problems due to occlusions such as eyeglasses. This method, however, is concerned with face detection and does not automatically detect eyeglasses in faces. This method also does not address the challenges posed by various lighting conditions in face images.
A disclosed embodiment of the application addresses these and other issues by utilizing a method and apparatus for automatic eyeglasses detection in a face image using a nose ridge mask.